I do not own X-Men.

Maywood, New Jersey
1949

Childhood are the years that one spends in the utmost serenity, blissful innocence, and happiness. The world doesn't seem so bad when one is a child. In fact, it feels like you could conquer the world just from your backyard. Childhood is meant to be happy. But not all are so lucky.

Eileen Margaret Rockefeller lived with her mother in Maywood, New Jersey. She had never met her father, but at the tender age of nine she never really asked about him. Eileen spent her days going to school and spending all of her time with her best friend: her mother.

There wasn't a thing that Eileen and her mother didn't share. Melissa Rockefeller believed in sharing everything with her daughter, to let her know as much about the real world as possible. But there is only so much you can tell an innocent nine year old. The biggest secret that Melissa kept from her daughter? That her father was a terrible man who had walked out on Melissa when she was pregnant at seventeen years old.

Eileen had never asked about her father, so Melissa never felt it necessary to bring it up. There was a time and a place for everything and nine years old, during the happiest time of her life, was not it.

Eileen was a happy child. She was always smiling and giggling. But she was very emotional. She cried easily at the simplest things. If she accidentally stepped on an ant, she would produce tears. If she bit her tongue, she would let out a wail before sobbing. If someone upset her, she would go off on a tantrum. Eileen was a very sweet child, she just had "emotional issues." Melissa thought it was all just Eileen being a dramatic little girl.

Eileen had always been very sympathetic to others' feelings as well, telling her mother that she wanted to one day do something to help people - such as be a nurse like Nana. Melissa admired her daughter's ambitions and personality, and thought despite all of her emotional rollercoasters, she was quite mature and level headed for a nine year old.

It was Eileen and Melissa against the world. Or so they thought.

On a cold, rainy night in 1949 the doorbell rang. Melissa had been reading a magazine and Eileen was playing with her dolls. Melissa got up. "Stay where you are, sweetheart," she smiled at her daughter. Eileen complied.

The moment that Melissa had opened the door was when Eileen felt something she had never felt so strongly before.

Fear.

Eileen had felt fear before. She was nine, after all. She was still afraid of monsters in the closet or under the bed like any other nine year old, but this fear felt different. This fear... it wasn't hers, and even at the young age of nine Eileen could tell that much. Suddenly, she saw fragments of something in her mind - like a movie. It was her mother; younger, but it was her mother. Then she saw a younger man that she had never seen before in her life. Then red. The man was hitting her mother. Eileen closed her eyes tightly as she dropped her dolls to the floor.

Worry and curiosity getting the best of her, Eileen got up from her spot on the floor and moved to the hallway where the front door was. She stood just on the opposite side of the wall, listening to her mother and the person at the door.

"What are you doing here?" The fear was absolutely evident in her mother's quiet, trembling voice.

"I'm here to see our daughter," the person at the door, a man, responded. His evil grin could be heard through his voice. Almost immediately, Eileen could sense he was not a good man. He had very ill intentions and Eileen had absolutely no idea how she could tell.

"You can go to hell," Melissa spat, trying to keep her voice quiet for the sake of Eileen. "She is my daughter, and I will not let you have play any sort part in her life!"

"Oh, come on Lissa," the man smirked and made a move to step inside of the house, an action that was very much not welcomed by Melissa. She moved to the side to stop him.

"Go away, Jack, before I call the cops."

"Oh, babe, don't you remember all of the fun we used to have?" The man called Jack retorted.

That was when Eileen could feel an overwhelming wave of sadness and terror that came over her, but it still wasn't her own. She was so confused and she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, now becoming scared herself.

Melissa moved to put a hand on Jack's arm. "I mean it, leave now. You are not her father!"

At these words, small, nine year old Eileen moved out from behind the wall to see the man that was apparently claiming to be her father and then horror struck.

All too quick, Jack moved his arm to inside of his coat and pulled out a black object bigger than his hand and... BANG.

Melissa now laid on the floor, her eyes open and blood pouring out of the gunshot wound to her chest.

Eileen was young but she was mature and old enough to realize what had just happened. It was as if all of a sudden, the sadness and terror she had been feeling went away the moment her mother's body hit the ground and was replaced by sheer, blinding anger.

The man called Jack began to walk toward her and Eileen dared not to move. He looked threatening but... Eileen could feel this guilt, a guilt she knew wasn't hers. She barely knew how to feel such an emotion on her own! She looked up at the man, seeing the same dark brown hair that she had.

"Hey there," the man said in a menacing voice. "I'm your dad -"

Jack was just about to reach out and take a hold of Eileen when suddenly he began to see her seemingly drifting away. It was as if the hallway suddenly got longer and she stood at the end. Jack was confused and when he moved to head toward her again, his feet felt glued to the spot. Beneath him stood the body of Melissa, the first person he had ever killed. It was his guilt. It felt as if it were consuming him.

Of course, he really only stood a foot or two away from Eileen who was staring at him with wide eyes, completely unaware that she was making him see things. "You hurt my mommy," she said, her voice much stronger than she realized. She could feel herself growing stronger and angrier as he grew weaker and more scared. "You. Hurt. My. Mommy."

Jack felt as if the walls were closing in on him; or at least that was what it felt like. He looked up at the girl who was now, at least in his eyes, surrounded by a burning fire. Jack was terrified.

That was when the sirens sounded and Eileen's concentration on the man broke as she looked past him, out of the door and onto the street where the police were. And Jack was on the floor, breathing heavily and still scared: none of what he had seen was real.

The police then took Jack away and Eileen was wrapped up in a blanket and placed in a squad car. She could sense an urgency, a sense of duty, and even sadness and confusion from the many people surrounding her house as she watched her mother, covered in a sheet, put in the back of an ambulance.

Hey! Here is my first X-Men fic! This was sort of a prologue for what is to come ahead in the 60s! Eileen's powers will be better explained in the next chapter if you've not yet figured it out. Please read and review!